U.S. State Science Standards Are “Mediocre to Awful”
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[img]http://i.imgur.com/OO9KC.jpg[/img]
[quote]A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute paints a grim picture of state science standards across the United States. But it also reveals some intriguing details about exactly what’s going wrong with the way many American students are learning science.
Standards are the foundation upon which educators build curricula, write textbooks and train teachers– they often take the form of a list of facts and skills that students must master at each grade level. Each state is free to formulate its own standards, and numerous studies have found that high standards are a first step on the road to high student achievement. “A majority of the states’ standards remain mediocre to awful,” write the authors of the report. Only one state, California, plus the District of Columbia, earned straight A’s. Indiana, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia each scored an A-, and a band of states in and around the northwest, including Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Nebraska, scored F’s. (For any New Yorkers reading this, our standards earned a respectable B+, plus the honor of having “some of the most elegant writing of any science standards document”).
[b]What exactly is going wrong? The study’s lead authors identified four main factors: an undermining of evolution, vague goals, not enough guidance for teachers on how to integrate the history of science and the concept of scientific inquiry into their lessons, and not enough math instruction.[/b]
Let’s take these one by one. For evolution, the report points out that eight anti-evolution bills were introduced in six state legislatures last year. This year, two similar bills were pre-filed in New Hampshire and one in Indiana. ”And these tactics are far more subtle than they once were,” write the authors. “Missouri, for example, has asterisked all ‘controversial’ evolution content in the standards and relegated it to a voluntary curriculum that will not be assessed … Tennessee includes evolution only in an elective high school course (not the basic high school biology course).” Maryland, according to the report, includes evolution content but “explicitly excludes” crucial points about evolution from its state-wide tests.
States cited for vague standards include Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. One example: New Jersey fourth graders are asked to “Demonstrate understanding of the interrelationships among fundamental concepts in the physical, life and Earth systems sciences.” Meanwhile, in A-scoring California, the standards explain to teachers and curriculum writers much more specifically that “Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in everyday life.” The standards go on to list half a dozen specific skills and facts that students must master in order to understand that overarching concept, such as “Students know electrical energy can be converted to heat, light, and motion.”
The report also notes that standards for introducing scientific inquiry into classrooms are, in many states, vague to the point of uselessness. In Idaho, students are “merely asked to ‘make observations’ or to ‘use cooperation and interaction skills.’ ”
Finally, the report noted that few states make the link between math and science clear. In its own words: “Mathematics is integral to science. Yet .. many [states] seem to go to great lengths to avoid mathematical formulae and equations altogether.”
A December report by Change the Equation, a group of CEOs working to support President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, also found that states set radically different expectations for students in science. The report looked not at the standards themselves but at how each state scores its assessment tests and how it defines “proficiency” in the subject.
Lastly, a bit of good news. At least 26 states have signed on to an effort to write new, common “Next Generation Science Standards” that will be more rigorous and specific than what many states currently have on the books. To read more about that effort, visit [url]http://www.nextgenscience.org/[/url] or [url]http://www.achieve.org/[/url] or read the document upon which the standards will be based here.[/quote]
[url]http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/budding-scientist/2012/02/01/u-s-state-science-standards-are-mediocre-to-awful/[/url]
Common, America! We can do better than this can't we?
Hey my state has an A-
California, wooooooooo
Indiana is an A-? Shit.
You know. I refuse to believe that Texas has a C, when they have fiction in their science doctrines.
Go california
[QUOTE=Nikota;38469205]You know. I refuse to believe that Texas has a C, when they have fiction in their science doctrines.[/QUOTE]
Because everyone in Texas is a bible thumping hillbilly right?
Haha Oklahoma has an F, figures, most people here don't even believe in evolution.
[QUOTE=Timebomb575;38469279]Because everyone in Texas is a bible thumping hillbilly right?[/QUOTE]
Yes.
Fuck yeah, Indiana has an A-
Shit, I live in a state with a B+ and I was still taught that creationism is an alternative doctrine when being taught about evolution.
Illinois has a D...
Still passing!
Nice to see good ol' VA's got an A-, I thought we had pretty good standards in our school curriculum
Hell, we only covered Creationism extremely briefly and it wasn't even in Science, it was a short thing in History where the teacher said some people believe it
God, I felt like I was the only one that really understood my science classes.
Though I went to a fancy private school that really captivated me, and I learned a whole friggin' lot.
I was stunned when I went to public school, though. :/
[QUOTE=Nikota;38469205]You know. I refuse to believe that Texas has a C, when they have fiction in their science doctrines.[/QUOTE]
Texas is really fucking big you know, I've never heard creationism mentioned in any of my science courses and hell I'm surprised we don't have a B we have some extremely comprehensive physics, chemistry, and engineering courses. (physics C aw yea)
... How in the hell does South Carolina have an A-?
[url]http://www.edexcellence.net/publications/the-state-of-state-science-standards-2012.html[/url]
They can go fuck themselves.
They aren't testing shit. They have no control, they have no proper variables, they have no objective testing process, and ultimately absolutely no way to repeat the testing procedure. They look at the standards for each state and then spew a bunch of bullshit about how it doesn't match their requirements.
This is shit science and is pathetic.
[QUOTE=Nikota;38469205]You know. I refuse to believe that Texas has a C, when they have fiction in their science doctrines.[/QUOTE]
Uh, no they don't.
Fantastic, NC has a D
"SCIENCE? WHATCHU MEAN SCIENCE? THE ONLY SCIENCE I NEED IS U S AND A!"
Good ol New York being ok but not great at pretty much everything.
[QUOTE=Crazy Ivan;38469334]... How in the hell does South Carolina have an A-?[/QUOTE]
Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, I imagine.
EDIT: Oh, they base it off of grade school stuff. I have no idea then. Grade school here was so much easier than the DoD school I went to when I was in Japan.
[QUOTE=Nikota;38469205]You know. I refuse to believe that Texas has a C, when they have fiction in their science doctrines.[/QUOTE]
We were taught evolution in mandatory biology class in high school but whatever you say.
This is what happens when people think the only way to fix education is to throw money at it, of course money is #2 on the list of shit that needs to go to the schools but #1 is actually using that money correctly by making STEM classes important and interesting.
Well we are that country whos House Committee on Science, Space and Technology includes that evangelical guy who publicly denounced Science and that guy who talked about "legitimate rape".
Plus the committee has more Republicans than Democrats so you know it's not gonna be at it's best.
lol America
[editline]15th November 2012[/editline]
Why do I live here?
Yay, California. Not surprising since we've got Caltech, UC Berkeley, UCSF, UCLA just to name a few. :)
[QUOTE=King Tiger;38469296]Illinois has a D...
Still passing![/QUOTE]
cps
e: it needs to be fixed
[QUOTE=Mr._N;38469625]Yay, California. Not surprising since we've got Caltech, UC Berkeley, UCSF, UCLA just to name a few. :)[/QUOTE]
Not to mention we have all the Asians! Seriously just take a walk around UCLA.
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